Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Rutherford has built-in conflict of interest if she wins

It took the Enron situation, for Fortune 500 industries to realize that hiring the consulting firms owned by their big 5 auditing firms was a conflict of interest. What is it going to take for Peachtree City to realize that we should not enter into known conflicts of interest on our City Council?

What am I talking about? Well, this is the situation. The Peachtree City Council has approved the formation of a non-profit organization to oversee the amphitheater and tennis center. This non-profit organization’s governing body consists of the city manager, city finance director, two city council members and one recreational member.

This governing body will supervise the current candidate council member Rutherford, if elected, that works at the amphitheater. The city manager and finance director will work for the current candidate council member Rutherford, if elected, and in turn supervise this current candidate for council: Rutherford if elected as an employee of the amphitheater.

How would you like to be the amphitheater director, knowing that one of your employees was a city council member and held your career in their hands? Every move that you make as amphitheater director would be scrutinized. How would you like to be the city manager or the city finance director and report to a city council member that is also a nonprofit organization employee that you supervise?

In both of these cases would you not be concerned about your careers knowing that any decision you make related to the amphitheater could potentially affect your career because in essence you are making a decision on the potential council member Rutherford’s livelihood?

Where are our ethics? Why do we want to knowingly enter into these conflicts? Have we not had enough? Councilman Rapson can finally vote on venue issues, now that his spouse is no longer on the Amphitheater’s board. Why would we want to create a situation for a new city council member, where she would ethically need to refrain from voting on multiple issues? Voters of Peachtree City, you need to know your facts before going to the polls on Nov. 25. Let us prevent these types of ethical issues when we go to the polls.

John Nieber

Peachtree City, Ga.